Trip report Portugal and the azores
First of all, I need to give a huge shout out and thank you to
@cgr!! Without your report we wouldn’t have been able to do this trip. We used a lot of your information and tips.
Also, we booked this august 4th so this was a last minute, no miles, tried to be conscious of a budget type of trip.
August 17th Thursday
Depart jfk to Madrid
August 18 Friday
Madrid to Porto landed around 9am
We took an Uber to hotel de musica
We had ordered on Wednesday food from Sababa.
After checking in we went to pick up the food which was like a 10 minute walk or 5 minute 3-5 euro trip
We then explored a little bit around the area and found a shopping center where we picked up some English reading material for shabbos.
Before coming I had read that we weren’t allowed to bring in any meat or chicken into Portugal. But we decided to risk it and ordered frozen meals from pomegranate since we were going to be traveling around the country. When going through Lisbon, there was a nothing to declare line- most of the time we went through there wasn’t anyone there.
There is very limited kosher food options in the country, so we also ordered extra from Sababa which was frozen well and delicious when warmed up and defrosted. We ordered a shabbos meal from the hotel, which is the reason why we decided to fly there first for shabbos.
The hotel food ended up being catered by Sababa as well, just different options depending on where it was being ordered from. The hotel's options included the wine and water for the table
The hotel was great with knowing about our needs as observant jews like opening doors etc. they were also allowed us to store our boxed food in their freezer and got it for us whenever we requested.
They set up a special eating area for the kosher eaters and we ended up having an enjoyable meal with 6 other people.
Shabbos
After sleeping in very late due to jet lag (2pm!) we ate lunch.
Because we knew we’d sleep in we didn’t register at the shul, but apparently there was a kiddish after Davening.
We then walked around the city of porto with an impromptu tour by our fellow travelers and guests at the hotel.
We walked to the rue Victoria where the Jews once lived, and how it extended to the waterfront for the merchants. It was pointed out to us where a shul once stood and was razed and replaced with a church. We also passed by the nursing home that recently made the news when someone doing construction discovered a hidden compartment of an Aron Kodesh. We asked the following day if we can go see it but were told no.
We passed by other landmarks of Porto , like the bookstore that people claimed the served as an inspiration for J K Rowling which apparently she denied, famous tower, university, cathedrals.
Sunday - Monday
We booked a 2 day Jewish history tour with Lisbon explorer ( as per
@cgr recommendations)
Lilana was our guide with Sylvester as the driver . They were excellent!!
I wouldn’t be able to share everything we learnt but we came away feeling like we didn’t know anything of Portuguese Jewish history in contrast of just learning about the Spanish Inquisition.
Portugal had quite a significant inquisition and was disturbing to hear all the atrocities that our people had gone through in this country. We felt a little disappointed by our history and global education. However, we learnt that this was also due to the fact that Portugal was under a dictatorship and fascism and lack of modernization until relatively recently.
We explored the towns of porto, Trancoso belmonte, Coimbra, Tomar,
We saw the signs of the new Christians on the doors in Trancoso
By the way, the term maranos is considered a bad word and they are referred to as new Christian.
We overnighted in the Belmonte hotel - Sinai Really nice , clean place with breakfast. They have meals there but require to contact the mashgiach.
Belmonte is a town in middle of the vallry that was discovered to be a hidden Jewish in 1917. They had thought they were the only Jew left and had remained hidden with interesting customs for years.
Samual Schwartz , a polish jewish, discovered them when he came for business. He observed the children coming in on Friday at nightfall, the woman sweeping outdoors, as well as homes had a dim glow every Friday ( in contrast to extinguishing it at night before going to bed). The Christian neighbors knew and just didn’t expose their neighbors.
We walked around the town at night and passed an obviously Jewish woman to us, but she was very suspicious of us which was so awkward for us to be feeling coming from New York.
We later passed her again and told her in Hebrew that we were Yehudim and she seemed a little friendlier.
There was a store, that has Hebrew words but we didn’t end up going in.
We did the museum there and saw some of the artifacts that were placed there from the rest of the country and the village like the pocket mezuzah.
In Coimbra we saw where they discovered a Mikva recently that will be open to the public soon.
We also went to where the inquisition tortures took place and saw the remains of it. It was hearttrending to stand in a place where our people were tortured.
It’s now open for people to come by and learn about what occurred there so many years ago.
We also saw what’s left of the inquisiton buildings , used now for government offices, and the symbol of it still present.
We walked through the college a vast palatial feel, and the town, we walked through the streets where people went on the way to their death.
I’m gonna quote or paraphrase
@cgr again, cuz it resonated so much on our trip.
The beautiful country was so dampened by the Jewish blood in it and it was hard to look past it as we walked the streets. In addition, the lack of this country knowing their history and their responsibility gave us uneasy feelings.
We learned that the culture was to not ask questions which grossly impacts the culture and knowledge of history of the people. However, they are working on it by opening up these sites to Allways be accessible and building museums.
In tomar, we saw another place that samual Schwartz uncovered when he realized an old barn was a shul.
At the end of the amazing two days we were dropped off at our next hotel at the intercontinental Lisbon. I can’t say it enough, and I firmly believe that a trip to Portugal cannot be completed without these tour guides and their vast knowledge they shared.
Tuesday
We booked another tour again
@cgr with Paolo of Lisbon explorer, a must do!
It was a 4 hour walking tour of Lisbon and it’s Jewish history. Agoajn, things we never heard about and it was extensive.
The history about how Portugal was first tolerant and wanted their Jews as they were vital to their financial positions. the expulsion of Spanish Jews to Portugal, king manual’s marriage to Isabella of Spain and its conditions of expelling Jews, Lisbon horrific massacre (and the monument that recently got placed as it took a long time for Lisbon municipality to admit to it ) rue de liberta where all the designer stores are now, which was a round up spot, the children being sold as slaves and when they weren’t taken , they went to São Tomé, crocodile island - where they are still practicing interesting customs til today. The Abarbenel, his introduction of Christopher Columbus to the King of Portugal and subsequently King of Spain, and the very strong possibility of Columbus's heritage, other Influential Jews, their impact of the age of exploration, Portugal's empire and the flag of Portugal has the symbol that was part of a Jewish man, Baruch Spinoza 's contribution. A tool , a compass like tool, that used together with a almanac to navigate the seas.
We were fascinated and blown away.
After the tour we just went into shops, like authentic leather that is not counterfeit like other countries in Europe where you can get gloves and shoes, filigree jewelry store that is ninety nine years old, and a famous soap shop. We also went to see the kosher store in Lisbon , porugal. Dvir had a nice selection and was super helpful with information.
Wednesday
We caught a flight to azores. Lisbon airport can be be confusing and eventough we got there in time , they refused to take our bags and we had to pay again to go on the next flight. I will say that after 3 intense sad days that we learned the history of our people on that soil, we weren’t sad to be moving on to our next stop.
Our flight was 2.5 hours to a Portuguese island, an archipelago in middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Ponte delgada is a very small airport. There is no Uber or bolt. But there are taxis there and it’s about 15 euro to get to ponte delgada.
We checked in to the octant ponte delgada.
A beautiful hotel. Super nice accommodating no words to decide how nice and helpful they were! They gave us eggs(I asked them to translate the box to ensure it was chicken) stored our food
We had brought along a dash griddle, waffle maker and hot logic- thank you
@Dan!
Thursday
Tour with Antonio from funtastic Tours
Beautiful View points
Thermal bath in the ocean with hot and cold currents. very cool both literally and figuratively.
Pineapple platarion - they taste different and we were able to pick one to bring home.
We didn’t go up to the sere cicadas cuz it was foggy.
We took pictures overlooking the blue and green lakes
That night we took a taxi to a nearby shopping center parke atlantico to do self laundry (basement floor- in the parking garage at the end.) and to pick up some fruits, vegetables and water at continne ( a Walmart type store)
Friday
Passed by waterfall
Headed to Furnas and the lake
We went to the hot springs that have iron in them at the
We also saw the furnels which the steam comes from the volcano.
We were able to buy sweet corn that was cooked in the furnels ( similar to geysers but there’s a difference.. ) very cool experience to be able to buy street food
By the way, the kosher list we looked at said only Hagen daz ice cream was kosher… we never found any but we did find Ben and Jerry’s in a few places anf bought them to cool ourselves down.
Shabbos
Pool read and walked the promenade
Sunday
Went to furnas to the terra noste hot springs
Monday
Atving up to sete cidates - beautiful!
Spa in the hotel has a circuit included with thermal baths sauna, and Turkish bath.
Tue
Early Flight to Lisbon.
Even though pdl is a small airport it was quite busy.
This time in by the nothing To declare line in Lisbon , there were people standing there and pulled some people over for inspection. Bh we weren’t but we didn’t have much left at this point.
Train to Alberferria
Taxi to pine cliff
Sunset boat tour of algarve region with all rock formations. It was beautiful
Wed
Beautiful Beach
Pedal boat that had a slide on it
Thur
Chill at pool
We took a Day trip driver from Alberferria to Lisbon. We chose to do this because the flights out of Lisbon in coordination with the train wouldn’t have let us enjoy our hotel at the pine cliff hotel. We had Very nice ride, pleasant. He got us the trolleys when we got to the airport.
Lisbon airport as I mentioned before, can be very confusing.
